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The negative impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) begins early in the child's relationship with a caregiver. Children's relationships with, and internal working models of, abused parents have rarely been documented. The aim of this study was to collect and interpret young children's accounts of their abused parent. Interviews were conducted with 17 children aged 4 to 12 years who had witnessed IPV. Thematic analysis identified three main themes and seven sub-themes: 'Coherent accounts of the parent' (sub-themes of 'general benevolence', 'provision of support, protection, and nurture', and 'parental distress'); 'Deficient accounts of the parent' ('vague accounts' and 'disorganized narrations'); and 'The parent as a trauma trigger' ('avoidance' and 'breakthrough of intrusive memories and thoughts'). The results indicate these children may hold integrated, deficient, or blocked internal representations of an abused parent, and they illustrate the benefit of including young children as informants in research., Author(s): Karin Pernebo [sup.1] [sup.2] , Kjerstin Almqvist [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) 0000 0001 2174 3522grid.8148.5Department of Psychology, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden (2) Department of Research and Development, Region Kronoberg, [...]

IN RECENT YEARS, ISSUES relating to moral and conventional values have been emphasized in educational policies. This study examines young children's (100 children aged 4-8 years) own understandings of values and rules for how to treat others and participate in school. Eleven classrooms, within seven different elementary schools in Queensland, were visited. Children were interviewed regarding their views about moral and conventional issues, rules and participation in everyday school life. According to the children, 'doing the right thing' in school involved both a concern for others' wellbeing and for the social order in school, including conventions, rules and behaviour connected with discipline. The children's responsibility seemed, however, to be to adapt to the (school) system, rather than being an active participant in constructing the system., Introduction It is widely understood that early education is a significant arena in which children learn about moral and conventional values. Values education, beginning in the early years, is often [...]

Are children's statements about their futures related to outcomes in middle age? In 1966 almost 13,500 children ages 12-13 were asked whether they thought their futures would be worse, similar or better as compared to others of their own age. It was shown that children with low, and surprisingly high, expectations did suffer from increased mortality, economic hardship and weak labor market attachment risks in middle age. Although it cannot be ruled out that expectations worked as self-fulfilling prophesies, the analyses showed that expectations essentially reflected facts known to the children (i.e., upbringing conditions and their own abilities and achievements)., Introduction Do children's expectations predict success or failure over the life course? Are children who think they will do worse than others likely to do so? What about those who [...]

The most often suggested strategy given to children if they are bothered by bullies is to tell their teacher or to get help from an adult (American School Health Association, [...]

This exploratory study described Taiwanese children's perceptions of peace and what they think children can do to make peace. In-depth interviews were conducted with 60 Taiwanese children ages 4 to 18 years. The most predominant themes for the perceptions of peace were what peace is not, prosocial behaviors, positive emotions, and positive evaluations of peace. Approximately half of the children (48%) provided specific strategies for making peace. The suggested strategies generally were based on the child's immediate environment, such as 'don't fight,' 'don't argue,' and specific prosocial behaviors. 52% of children either said, 'I don't know' when asked what children can do to make peace, or did not feel empowered to make peace. The initial findings were interpreted in terms of sociocultural issues, such as cultural heritage and upbringing, as well as within a political context. DOI 10.2466/PR0.105.F.1095-1102

When adults make a joint commitment to act together, they feel an obligation to their partner. In 2 studies, the authors investigated whether young children also understand joint commitments to act together. In the first study, when an adult orchestrated with the child a joint commitment to play a game together and then broke off from their joint activity, 3-year-olds (n = 24) reacted to the break significantly more often (e.g., by trying to re-engage her or waiting for her to restart playing) than when she simply joined the child's individual activity unbidden. Two-year-olds (n = 24) did not differentiate between these 2 situations. In the second study, 3- and 4-year-old children (n = 30 at each age) were enticed away from their activity with an adult. Children acknowledged their leaving (e.g., by looking to the adult or handing her the object they had been playing with) significantly more often when they had made a joint commitment to act together than when they had not. By 3 years of age, children thus recognize both when an adult is committed and when they themselves are committed to a joint activity. Keywords: social--cognitive development, joint action, joint commitment, obligation

Puppets are inanimate objects that, when watched by an audience, are invested with life and motion and character. This is particularly the case, we imagine, with children's theatre, where there is a cultural assumption that young audiences engage with the illusion and imaginative experience. In this article Matthew Reason uses innovative visual arts-based audience research to explore this question, asking how children respond to puppets in live theatre. In doing so he engages with questions of reality, illusion, belief, and disbelief in the theatre, as well as with questions about the respect and sophistication of young audiences. Matthew Reason is a Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Head of Programme for MA Studies in Creative Practice at York St John University. In 2006 he published Documentation, Disappearance, and the Representation of Live Performance (Palgrave), and a full-length exploration of children's experiences of live theatre, The Young Audience, will be published by Trentham Books in 2010.

Three studies were conducted to explore Chinese children's understanding of shyness. In Study 1 (N = 174, M age = 10.18) interviews with Chinese children revealed a group of diverse [...]

This study examined the effects of climbing ladders, wall bars, perches, and ropes in changing students' attitudes and emotions associated with sport climbing. The tasks were part of a physical education instructional curriculum of primary schools in Italy. Boys and girls (N=80), ages 10 to 11 years, were involved in a 10-lesson intervention during their curricular lesson. Participants were from six normal classes ranging in size from 16 to 18 children. Three classes were assigned randomly to an experimental group and the other three to a control group. The experimental group performed challenging climbing tasks, while the control group engaged in other physical activities. Analysis of variance indicated that scores on the Climbing Pictures Test differed significantly after the intervention, with children in the experimental group scoring lower on avoidance of climbing situations and higher on positive emotions.

Abstract. This two-year descriptive study of purposefully selected Minnesota families included interviews with 94 children who either were currently enrolled in or had attended child care programs. Children from 1 [...]

Few studies have addressed the experiences or perceptions of adult children of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) parents. In this study, 46 adult children of LGB parents were interviewed, and their perceptions of how growing up with LGB parents influenced them as adults were examined. Qualitative analysis revealed that adults felt that they were more tolerant and open minded and had more flexible ideas about gender and sexuality as a function of growing up with LGB parents. Participants often felt protective of their parents and the gay community, and some went to great efforts to defend them to peers, family members, and society. Some participants struggled with issues of trust in adulthood, which they related to the experience of their parents' unexpected coming out, as well as to experiences of teasing and bullying. The importance of understanding these findings in the context of societal heterosexism is discussed. Keywords: children, gender, lesbian, gay, parents

The authors explored mental-state reasoning ability among 72 preschoolers (ages 3-5 years) as a possible developmental mechanism for the well-known social loafing effect: diminished individual effort in a collaborative task. The authors expected that older children would outperform young children on standard mental-state reasoning tests and that they would display greater social loafing than younger children. In addition, we hypothesized that the ability to infer the mental states of others would be predictive of social loafing, but that the ability to reason about one's own knowledge would not. The authors gave children three standard false-belief tasks and participated in a within-subjects balloon inflation task that they performed both individually and as part of a group. Results indicated that 3-year-olds performed significantly below older preschoolers on mental-state reasoning tasks. Only 4- and 5-year-olds displayed diminished individual effort. Multiple regression analysis indicated that only the ability to reason about others' false beliefs accounted for a significant amount of variance in social loafing; age (in months) and own false-belief reasoning did not. The authors discussed theoretical and pedagogical implications. Keywords: children, collaboration, development, loafing, theory of mind, WHEN INDIVIDUALS PERFORM A GROUP TASK, they tend to reduce their individual efforts or output relative to that when working alone (Latane, Williams, & Harkins, 1979). This social loafing effect [...]

Two studies were conducted with Cantonese-speaking preschoolers examining J. de Villiers's (1995) hypothesis that syntactic complements play a unique role in the acquisition of false belief (FB). In Study 1, the authors found a positive correlation between FB and syntactic complements in 72 four- to six-year old Cantonese-speaking preschoolers. Study 2 followed 72 three- to five-year-old Cantonese-speaking children who initially failed an FB screening task and were then tested on general language abilities, short-term memory, inhibition, nonverbal IQ, and on FB and complement tasks. Once age and initial FB understanding were controlled for in both multiple regression and hierarchical linear modeling analyses, complements no longer uniquely predicted FB. Instead, individual differences in general language abilities and short-term memory contributed to the variation in both complements and FB. Keywords: theory of mind, language, complements, Chinese, hierarchical linear modeling

In 2 experiments, the authors examined the evolution of folkbiological reasoning in children (4 to 10 years of age) and adults from 4 distinct communities (rural Native American, rural majority culture, and suburban and urban North Amefican communities). Using an adoption paradigm, they examined participants' intuitions regarding the inheritance of properties and the mechanisms underlying the transmission of kindhood. Across all communities and ages, there was a strong biological component underlying reasoning about the inheritance of properties. There were also differences in children's intuitions about the mechanisms underlying kindhood: Native American children were more likely than their counterparts to consider blood as a candidate biological essence. This suggests that as children search to discover the underlying essence of a biological kind, they are guided by broad essentialist notions that are shaped by discourse within their community. Keywords: culture, cognition, folkbiology, development

What is the Children's Choices project? Each year 10,000 school children from different regions of the United States read and vote on the newly published children's and young adults' trade [...]

Abstract. This study examined children's presentations of the 'LD experience' as expressed in online messages on a public website designed for children with learning and attention problems. Earlier research has [...]

A study on thrift and saving trends in Canada is presented. The study examines the impact of education, earnings, and parents' saving behavior, on child's inclination towards savings. The study also examines the compares the saving habits of French and English speaking populations with Canadians and immigrants from other parts of the world.

Dairy products are the main source of calcium in the National School Lunch Program. Children who avoid dairy products because of lactose intolerance or other concerns can benefit from the availability of another calcium-rich beverage in the National School Lunch Program. This study assessed whether elementary school children would select and consume calcium-fortified soymilk in school cafeterias and whether the addition of soymilk would increase the percentage of students selecting a calcium-rich beverage at lunch. The ratio of saturated fat to calcium consumed from calcium-rich beverages with and without the availability of soymilk was also determined. After 4 weeks of soymilk availability, 22.3% of students chose soymilk and consumed an average of 58% of each carton, whereas 77.6% chose dairy milk and consumed an average of 52.6%. Total calcium-rich beverage selection with lunch increased from 79% to 83.1%. Calcium consumption per gram of saturated fat consumed from calcium-rich beverages also rose from 194 mg to 237 mg with the addition of soymilk. J Am Diet Assoc. 2006;106:590-593.

A study on the saving habits of children is presented. The type of savings preferred by different age groups is also discussed.

A total of 107 Malay primary school girls (8-9 yr. old) completed a set of measurements on eating behavior (ChEAT, food neophobia scales, and dieting experience), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, body shape satisfaction, dietary intake, weight, and height. About 38% of the girls scored 20 and more on the CHEAT, and 46% of them reported dieting by reducing sugar and sweets (73%), skipping meals (67%), reducing fat foods (60%) and snacks (53%) as the most frequent methods practiced. In general, those girls with higher ChEAT scores tended to have lower self esteem (r = .39), indicating they were more unwilling to try new foods (food neophobic) (r = .29), chose a smaller figure for desired body size (r = .25), and were more dissatisfied with their body size (r = .31).

Changes in contemporary picture books: Postmodernism, metafiction and radical change Today's children live in a multimedia world characterised by fragmentation, juxtaposition of differing forms, and an ever-increasing diversity of symbolic [...]

In Study 1 college students (47 men, 104 women) watched Pokemon cartoons, and afterward they rated one of four trainers (persons who train creatures called Pokemon) on 28 characteristics. James, the male 'bad' trainer, was rated lowest of four trainers on 'masculine' traits including strength, assertiveness, certainty, and being a leader. Jesse, the female 'bad' trainer, was rated as sexiest and most aggressive. In Study 2 sixty-two elementary school children (28 girls, 34 boys) were individually interviewed. Fewer than 50% of the children could name a female Pokemon and participants were more likely to choose a boy than a girl as a favorite trainer. Male Pokemon and trainers may be more central to the cartoon, and counter-stereotypical gender portrayals may be one way to portray a 'bad' character even more negatively. KEY WORDS: cartoons; gender roles; television; media.

In this study, we examined gender and age variations in the use of emotion words during mother-child conversations about experiences. Thirty-two middle-class, Spanish-speaking, Peruvian mothers and their 3-and 5-year-old children participated in this study. Conversations were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded for number, types of emotions discussed, and conversational contexts in which the emotion word was embedded. Age differences were found only in children's use of emotion words. Gender differences were found only in mothers' use of emotion words. Findings are discussed in relation to socialization practices of emotional expression and gender in middle-class Peruvian society. Our results support and provide a developmental perspective on findings obtained in studies of adult emotional expression across various cultures. KEY WORDS: mother-child conversations: culture: gender: emotion.

This study addresses three questions: (a) What influence do parents' attitudes toward divorce have on offspring's attitudes? (b) How are offspring's attitudes toward divorce influenced by parental divorce, and do the effects vary depending on the gender of the child? and (c) How do conditions surrounding parental divorce influence young adults' attitudes? Results indicate that parents have the greatest influence on offspring during the late teen years. Fathers have more influence on sons' attitudes than mothers; the gender of parent has no effect on the influence of parents' attitudes on daughters' attitudes. In contrast to prior research, this study finds that parental divorce continues to influence offspring's views of divorce after controlling for parents' attitudes only for daughters, not for sons. Postdivorce conflict and diminished closeness to father following the divorce have different effects on sons' and daughters' attitudes. Keywords: parental divorce; attitudes toward divorce; intergenerational attitude transmission

This article examines children's and adults' attitudes to virtual representations of museum objects. It draws on empirical research data gained from two web-based digital learning environments conceived and designed by […]

Purpose: Sentence completion exercises require students to give open-ended responses to prompts. The first purpose of this article is to describe the method of sentence completion to assess middle-school children's attitudes and beliefs about aging. The second purpose is to describe the patterns of characteristics that children associate with aging. Design and Methods: Two middle schools in San Antonio, TX agreed to have their students participate in the sentence completion exercises at the beginning of the 1998-1999 school year. Teachers asked students to write responses to the following prompts: 'Old is ...,' 'You know you are old when ...,' 'You know your parents are old when ...,' 'When I am old, I ...,' and 'Old people....' We coded the responses for their characteristics and whether they were positive, negative, or neutral. Results: Of the 2,476 students, 1,874 (75.6%) wrote responses to at least one prompt. Overall, we collected 3,700 responses and coded 9,438 characteristics (2.6 characteristics per response). The most common characteristics of aging were having wrinkles (21.1%), having gray hair or being bald (20.0%), and being less active (17.5%). Students had a much more positive view of their future (55.4%) compared with their view of aging elicited by the other prompts (range of 4.9-25.7% positive responses). Students infrequently associated old age with specific conditions; only 4.6% mentioned diseases, 6.0% mentioned being ill or taking medications, and 5.7% mentioned sensory problems. Implications: Middle-school students view their futures much more positively than the changes they observe in their parents and other elders. Students infrequently identified specific diseases or impairments as responsible for the changes they observe with aging. These observed responses provide a starting point for educators to develop and deliver gerontologically based materials that teach about healthful habits to maintain independence across a life span. Key Words: Middle school, Education, Sentence completion, Health promotion

The author assessed preschool-aged children's attitudes (N = 70) toward their own and 2 ethnic or racial out-groups using traditional forced-choice measures and a new method that assessed children's out-group attitudes independently of their attitudes toward their own group. When required to assign positive and negative traits to either their own group or an ethnic or racial out-group, children evaluated their own group favorably relative to the out-group in question. However, when not forced to choose between groups, children evaluated out-groups positively, indicating that own-group preference relative to ethnic and racial out-groups was not equated with out-group rejection. Children's positive out-group evaluations did vary with the out-group being considered and were reflective of the local social context, suggesting the influence of social learning. The results indicate that young children's positive feelings toward their own group do not necessarily involve or cause negative out-group attitudes and that various factors might differentially influence in-group and out-group attitudes. key words: development, ethnic attitudes, ethnic identity, intergroup attitudes, prejudice, IN THE PAST, PEOPLE COMMONLY BELIEVED that young children were not aware of racial differences and that prejudice and discrimination were largely adult issues (Allport, 1958). However, early researchers of [...]

September 11 is symbolic of what grownups are not good at: the elimination of terrorism, the prevention of war, the practice of the Golden Rule found in all religions, the [...]

This research examined 3- to 11-year-old children's knowledge of and beliefs about violating several gender norms (e.g., toys, play styles, occupations, parental roles, hairstyles, and clothing) as compared to social and moral norms. Knowledge of the norms and understanding that norm violations were possible increased with age. The children's evaluations of violations of gender norms varied from item to item. Violations concerning becoming a parent of the other gender were devalued in both boys and girls, whereas most toy and occupation violations were not especially devalued in either. Boys with feminine hairstyles or clothing were evaluated more negatively than girls with masculine hairstyles or clothing. On the other hand, girls who played in masculine play styles were devalued relative to boys who played in feminine styles. Evaluations of norm violations were not consistently related to age. KEY WORDS: gender norms: gender development; gender norm violation.

First world societies are aging. In the United States, for example, a child born in 1900 could expect to live to be 47 years old, whereas a child born today [...]

Children categorize themselves and others along racial lines, leading them to perceive members of other racial groups as different from themselves. Teaching children to decategorize their perceptions of people could help them to see more self--other similarities than differences. Fourth-grade children (N = 65) were randomly assigned to be taught a short lesson on decategorizing people or to be read a story. As hypothesized, children in the experimental group scored significantly lower on the Racial Decategorization scale (Jones, 2001) than did children in the control group. The study demonstrates the benefits of teaching decategorization. Elementary school curricula including these lessons could reduce biased categorization and possibly promote the development of more nonprejudiced children.

I don't usually like to read, matter of fact I don't like to read. I thought Harry Potter was going to be an ordinary book, but it isn't.... When my [...]